He Makes All Things Beautiful: God’S Transformation of Our Emotional Wounds, Scars, and Brokenness

By Marvita Franklin

What do we do with the emotional wounds and scars that cast shadows over our lives? How do we respond to the brokenness we experience from disappointments, betrayals, and abandonment?
Wounds need time to heal. Scars disappear over timeor they dont. Whether they do or not, God has made you beautiful. Your wounds dont turn God off. He knows why they are there, and He is committed to causing them to work together for your good.
Transformation occurs as you begin to see yourself as God sees you, say about yourself what He says, and embrace the truth about you as He speaks it. That is the point at which you will begin to hear what Hes been saying all along: I am the soundtrack of your life; I AM the One who makes you beautiful. This book will help you
expose the real culprit responsible for our emotional wounds,
examine the consequences of attempting to manage the perceptions of others,
abandon mindsets that mar your beliefs about your beauty,
learn to embrace Jesus model for caring for scars, and
discover lifelong tips for ageless beauty.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Jul 16, 2013
• ISBN: 9781449798185

Marvita Franklin

Marvita Franklin has a passion for God’s Word and leader development. She is a U.S. Air Force retiree with an extensive background in training, coaching, and consulting. She conducts leadership workshops, speaks to women’s groups, teaches Sunday School classes, and sings in her church choir. She’s an avid reader who loves to sew, create scrapbooks, and do craft projects. She is married with two children and lives in Columbia, South Carolina.

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Copyright © 2013 Marvita Franklin.

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Scripture quotations marked ESV are taken from The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. Copyright © 2000; 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked HCSB taken from The Holy Bible: Holman Christian Standard Version. Copyright 2009. Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations marked NASB taken from the New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission."

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Scripture quotations marked MSG taken from The Message. Copyright © Eugene H. Peterson 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.

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ISBN: 978-1-4497-9819-2 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4497-9820-8 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4497-9818-5 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013910740

WestBow Press rev. date: 06/28/2013

CONTENTS

Foreword

Preface

Acknowledgements

Introduction

PART 1 - He Makes All Things Beautiful By Healing Our Wounds

Chapter 1    The Source of Our Wounds

Chapter 2    When Offense Takes Root

Chapter 3    Uprooting Offense

Chapter 4    Avoiding Offense    and Caring for Scars

PART 2 - He Makes All things Beautiful By Invading Our World

Chapter 5    God’s Invasion of Their World

Chapter 6    God Has Invaded Our World

PART 3 - He Makes All Things Beautiful By Giving Us Beauty Secrets for Life

Chapter 7    Cleanse Deeply

Chapter 8    Refine and Tone

Chapter 9    Moisturize

Chapter 10  Personal Beauty Secrets

Chapter 11  Tips for Ageless Beauty

Conclusion

Participant’s Guide

About The Author

Notes

PRAISE FOR

HE MAKES ALL THINGS BEAUTIFUL

"For the past few years, I have had the amazing honor to sit at the feet at one of God’s treasures, Marvita Franklin. She is one of those rare teaching jewels who comes along once in a lifetime and who God has gifted to bring Scriptures to life with realness and humor. Not only is Marvita anointed to teach, but God has also gifted her to encourage others to chase the dreams God planted within them. The book you hold in your hands will change your life if you allow the words to bathe your soul with its truths. Every page is filled with something that can be pondered and applied to make your life more pleasing to Abba Father. May you be inspired, encouraged and transformed as you read the riches in He Makes All Things Beautiful. I also hope you laugh as much as I do when I sit at her feet every Sunday morning. Marvita really is one in a million and chases God’s heart like no other! Enjoy the ride!"

Debbie Dixon Barney

Operations Director

South Carolina School of Leadership

To Tracy, Joshua, and Shannon

Because the legacy I hope to leave you is a passion for God and an abiding love for His Word

In Memoriam

Chaplain Herrie L. Reed, Jr, LT Col, USAF

August 18, 1956-September 22, 2006

For encouraging in me a love for God’s Word,

a passion to share it with others and for passing on the mantle of leadership. You are remembered well and deeply missed.

THE JEWELS IN MY LIFE

I had a dream one morning as I was sleeping in my bed

I saw jewels of various colors as they danced inside my head

And from the Lord I heard a Word especially for me

A word that literally opened up a new reality

He said, For where your treasure is, there your heart will be.

At once, I understood why He was saying this to me

The jewels in my life—the things of greatest worth

Did not consist of tangible stuff or things from on the earth

They were instead the people who had spoken into me

The rich Words of life, which helped to shape my destiny

As I pondered all the more, I remembered what you’d done

How you prayed for me and loved me during the times I felt alone

The picture became clearer as I listened to His voice

Your calling and election were certainly by His choice

As iron sharpens iron, so you’ve helped to hone my skills

And encouraged me to press toward the mark and do the Father’s will

You’re the people who’ve inspired—you’ve encouraged me to soar

You’re the people who have cried with me

Through each trial and closing door

Your name is written in my heart because into my life you’ve sown

Because of your faith and courage, it is by leaps and bounds I’ve grown

I will never be able to repay you for all of your sacrifice

For your guidance, your selflessness, and pouring out your life

So this poem is a small token of my love and gratitude

A simple way of saying how much I truly value you

When I’ve done all I can—as mother, daughter, friend, and wife

The things I’ll treasure most are you—the jewels in my life

©2001, M. Franklin

FOREWORD

T he single, young missionary associate strode confidently into her much-anticipated meeting with the elders of the church. She was, after all, well along her journey of raising final support and ready to take the Gospel to faraway lands of those who have never heard. Never could she have known that by stepping through that door her life would suddenly and unexpectedly be forever changed.

During a simple time of listening and waiting before the Lord, a word was sent from heaven through one of the elders. It was a word about old unhealed wounds and offenses of the past… a word that caused this young lady to face what she had long buried and hidden in the deepest recesses of her heart. Beyond this encounter, a new beginning, a journey toward healing, restoration and freedom followed.

So many of us are like this young lady—secretly wounded, carrying grief and bearing offense and the lies that support them. We somehow dismiss that He, who bore our griefs and carried our sorrows, wants us to live in the provision of this costly freedom.

I am grateful that Marvita has written about the Lord making all things beautiful. She courageously addresses issues about emotional and spiritual wounds. She uncovers deadly mindsets and their toxic effect in the realm of our thinking.

Her book goes beyond an appeal to reasoning and good principles; it is solidly scriptural from cover to cover. Marvita not only reflects on stories of individuals within the Bible, but she looks at their motives, mindsets and the decisions that ultimately defined their destinies. Marvita understands that power to transform and liberate us comes from the Word. From Old Testament to New, she helps the reader uncover and apply the timeless truths from these accounts to his or her life.

Marvita’s life is a picture of the tree in Psalm Chapter one. Her roots go deep beside the river, as one who both delights and meditates in the law of the Lord day and night. You, as the reader, will glean from the fruit of her life. May the transformational impact of this book come alive within you so that you, too, can proclaim, He really does make all things beautiful.

Glenn Burchett

Executive Associate Pastor

Christian Life Church

PREFACE

I n the spring of 2007, Angela Smith, women’s ministry director for Christian Life Church, Columbia SC invited me to be one of several group breakout leaders for our annual women’s retreat. The event was held at The Cove in Asheville, NC. That invitation began a relationship that has been a blessing and encouragement over the past six years. Her encouragement to me to be God’s girl for the moment was instrumental in the development of this book.

Following the retreat, the Lord began speaking to my heart that another invitation would follow. In August 2007, it was Angela (again) who extended that invitation. This time, I would be the keynote speaker for a retreat in the spring of 2008. The theme for the retreat was Something Beautiful. Early on, the Lord began speaking to my heart regarding what to share with the women who would attend. As the leader of Christian Life’s Women’s Ministry, Women-Connecting-Women, Angela’s vision centers on what will, first, connect women to God and, then, to each other. Her emphasis always highlights that we are real women with real faith doing real life.

This book is the follow-up to that season. It was a tremendous privilege for me to speak to the wonderful women who attended that weekend. In the weeks following, I felt impressed by the Lord to continue pondering and formatting the message for this book.

It has been five years. The insights from that season still resonate with me in this one. As I walk out my own brokenness before the Lord, I am grateful for the ways He heals my wounds, invades my world on a regular basis and provides the beauty secrets necessary for my ongoing transformation.

Thank you Angela for being a beautiful example of God’s heart and for your encouragement to me. After all of these years, it is still a precious watershed moment in God’s process of transforming me. Love you bunches… . Marvita

Whoever brings blessing will be enriched, and one who waters will himself be watered. (Proverbs 11:25 ESV)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

T o my parents, Morris and Delores Mungin , thank you for always believing in and encouraging me. Your love and support have helped to make me feel beautiful even in my most awkward seasons. I love you both very much! Mom, how could you not know   .   .   .   ?

To my brothers Tony, Chris, Jason and your families for being so loving and so much fun to be around. I love you all, and I am always refreshed by the time I spend with each of you.

To the Jewels In My Life who have come alongside me in every season of my life to continually remind me of how faithful God is and how really blessed I really am.

To Rhonda Barnes because having you as a BFF for the past 17 years has been one of the greatest outpourings of God’s grace upon my life. Thank you for always reminding me of who I am in Christ.

To Regina Wilson, Hope Valentine, Diana Raymond, Yolanda Martin, Reverend Carmen James, Caroline DeLeon, and Debbie Barney because you are faithful, authentic and transparent friends. You always seem to be on the ready to warfare on my behalf and it ministers life to me.

To the Christian Life Church Leaders and your families, thank you for pouring out your lives in service to the Body of Christ.

To the best Sunday school class on the planet for your candor, authenticity and prayers. It’s an honor to do community with you and to be sharpened as iron sharpens iron.

To Debbie Blank for sharing and living what it means to study to show thyself an approved workman.

INTRODUCTION

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end. (Ecclesiastes 3:11 NIV emphasis mine)

H e makes all things beautiful. In spite of our emotional wounds, scars or brokenness, God can transform us into something beautiful. The visual images before us everyday in fashion catalogs, department store displays and television ads send both blatant and subtle messages all of the time. Most of the time the message is we aren’t beautiful enough . Our hips are too big, our busts are too small, our lips are too thin, or our hair is too short. Then there are the other messages: our skin is bad and our teeth are dull. If we believe all of the noise, we feel as though we’re inadequate, don’t have enough, don’t do enough and can’t be enough. Enough already!

The message of Scripture is very different: God has made everything beautiful in its time—including us, despite messages to the contrary. There is a beauty waiting to break forth from within us, a beauty that longs after who He is. It’s a beauty that can only be accurately defined and understood within the framework of relationship with God through Christ.

The emphasis is on He

It is God who has made us beautiful! Whatever imperfections